Newest racers take part in Youth Regatta

Tuesday

Aug 21, 2007 at 2:00 AM

By Allison Goldsmith I&M Sports Editor

Nantucket Race Week is all-inclusive. In the same week that features some of the most prestigious 12-meters and classic wooden boats in the world, the island’s youngest sailors have gone head-to-head in Optimists and 420s, becoming a part of the new island tradition.

On Monday and Tuesday in Polpis Harbor, 29 Optimists featured racers ages 8 to 13 years old from Great Harbor Yacht Club, Nantucket Community Sailing and the Nantucket Yacht Club. Sailors competed in two fleets based on skill level: the green fleet or less experienced Opti sailors and the blue fleet of more experienced sailors.

In the inner harbor, 14 420 boats pitched older racers from Nantucket Community Sailing, the Nantucket Yacht Club and one boat from off-island against one another in a higher level of competition.

“It is my favorite part of race week. It really is. When you see the kids out there sailing, working hard, really putting in a strong effort, and on top of it you get to see their parents, sharing this experience with them, it really becomes a family experience. Those kids are the future Opera House Cup sailors,” Nantucket Community Sailing executive director Nick Judson said.

“A lot of this goes back to Nantucket Community Sailing. Obviously that whole program is oriented around the kids and getting the kids involved in sailing and racing. This is a great opportunity to make that happen and to particularly get the Nantucket Community Sailing kids involved in a pretty major regatta,” event co-chairman Arthur Gosnell said.

While Nantucket Yacht Club racing programs have been in place for years, it is only recently that the Nantucket Community Sailing program has started to catch up. Natural rivalries have arisen between Community Sailing and the yacht club’s youth racers who were vying for bragging rights this week.

“The program started with four people and it has grown since then,” Community Sailing 420 racer Justin Wayne, 17, said. “It has definitely made a lot of progress. Back then we were not a racing team. We went to regattas and didn’t know what we were doing. In the last three years there has been a lot going into the program.”

“It is great to have our own regatta, but I wish more people will come to it,” Community Sailing 420 racer Della Bradt said.

“I hope it turns into a big event for people all over Cape Cod,” Wayne added.

The Community Sailing sailors want to see the regatta grow to entice off-island teams to compete, but they recognize the difficulties. Teams would have to transport their own boats to the island and most likely have nowhere to store them. It is also more expensive than going to a regatta on the mainland. A conflict with the popular Beverly Regatta this week kept a number of teams away from the Nantucket event.

“I hope it becomes a more publicized event. It is publicized on-island, but if you are not on the island, you don’t hear about it. Everyone knows about the Opera House Cup. It would be nice to throw that in with the advertising all over the East Coast,” William McIvor, 17, said.

The 420 racers are not the only racers with more experience at this year’s Race Week. The young Opti sailors have also been exposed to more competition this summer, with four off-island regattas in the new boats.

“Some of them have been able to experience bigger fleets than the nine boats that we have, but for some of them it is their first time, which is great because some of them are doing really well,” Nantucket Community Sailing Polpis head instructor Mary Lentowski said. “It gives them more direction. There are some kids that don’t have that competitive edge and others that want to get out there and show everyone what they can do.”

Races on Monday and Tuesday ran at the same time with the two divisions, allowing the green fleet sailors to test their skills against blue fleet sailors, with results kept separately.

“I think (Monday) night at the family barbecue, where we give out the awards for all daily racing, I think that showed them they were part of a much bigger organization than just sailing out in Polpis. They got to see all the other racers and get to see what they can do in a couple years,” Lentowski said. “We get to see sailors from other yacht clubs in the 420s and kids from off-island, which is great to open them up to sailing, more than just in Polpis Harbor.”

“Boats are something that really can engage a kid both in terms of being out on the water and intellectually as well. It is a great thing for these young people to be out sailing rather than playing video games,” Gosnell said.

“I think that part of it is that the entire program, both Nantucket Race Week and the effort that Nantucket Community Sailing and Nantucket Yacht Club has put into it, has had a chance to mature and that’s the real benefit. This is no longer like the first time we have ever done it and not the first time many of these kids have been engaged in a race and the whole program is therefore built out better,” he said.

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